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threat posed by the work. For The Iliad, Plato chooses to alter or censor certain parts of
the text. As the following discussion will demonstrate, this response would be repeated
in ensuing periods of canonization. Fourth, selection is based on specific criteria, a set of
standards according to which texts are approved or dismissed. As the etymology of the
word “canon” suggests, proscriptive criticism places conventions at the center of the
selection process, and it is those texts thought to best articulate these conventions which
have greatness thrust upon them. Plato’s selection process also demonstrates that these
criteria are determined by prevailing ideologies, ideologies supported and defended by
their respective canonizers. Furthermore, what is particularly remarkable is that Plato’s
reliance on a strict moral code to institute guidelines for civic behavior and conduct has
shaped criteria for canonization throughout the ensuing course of western civilization.
A case in point that is pertinent to the continuity of historical perspectives in
canon-formation dates back to the second century, where monastic authorities observed a
similar procedure to decide which books should be included in what was constituted as
Bible. Once again the ramifications implied by the etymological significance of kanon
are determinant; the criteria of selection was how texts would “measure up” to the
standards and the “rule” set by their community; the early canonizers of the Bible “were
concerned above all else with distinguishing the orthodox from the heretical” (Guillory
“The Canon” 233). Further delving into the etymological meaning of “rule” and the
discourse surrounding scripture-selection, David Richter points out:
In a further figure, the canon became the list of texts containing the
rules—the group of books with full religious authority. The
establishment of the canon of the Hebrew Bible was the job of a
conference of rabbis at Yavneh early in the second century A.D.;
the patristic fathers established the canon of the New Testament in
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